Tag: jeff lemire

Marvel’s Inhuman vs X-Men event has seemed to hit its climax, the war between mutants and inhumans hasn’t turned out for the better. Many of the inhuman’s died, all because of a lack of communication between the two groups.

Emma Frost’s grief gets the best of her, we see her transition into hate and anger which in turn cause’s her make decisions that in dangers the X-Men, she no longer cares about saving mutant kind, Emma wants revenge for Cyclops and is hell bend on killing Black Bolt, who she blames for Scotts death. But its revealed that Cyclops wasn’t killed by Black Bolt, he was killed in an accident way before the discovery of the Terrigen Mist.

Young Cyclops reveals that Emma had been lying to everyone for months about it, Storm confronts her about it and she doesn’t deny it, in fact she becomes more unstable. If not for Ahura and the Ennilux, the war would’ve gotten more out of hand.

The down fall of Emma is also the rise of Madusa, she really evolved as a leader in this crossover, with all that was going on Madusa never wavered when things looked grim for them. Medusa’s growth was one of few things that I found enjoyable in this crossover, as for the final battle between the two groups, I found it to be a little lack luster. There was no real lost amongst the two teams, granted Ahura did lose a ship full of Ennilux, but in actuality their deaths played no real significance overall.

For me Inhumans vs X-Men is an average crossover at best, the story reminds me too much of AvX’s, on top of that you never get a real present of danger in this crossover, even with Emma going full on crazy at the end. Marvel had something good with this event, but because it focuses more on action instead of the narrative this crossover is miss.

The Inhumans have gotten the upper hand on the X-Men and finally located and release Black Bolt from, my biggest issue with this run is how the X-Men despite having a legit reason still come across as in the wrong, while you can debate whether or not that’s true, you can’t overlook this one other problem I have with this crossover, and that’s X-Men/ Mutants turn on each other way too quick. Again, some fans may not see it that way, but for me that’s how I see it.

Inside the World, an artificial time altering environment, Jean and Fantomex continue to battle it out with Karnak, who in the process finds lockjaw and frees him. Back in Limbo Gorgon and Colossus fight concludes with Colossus getting the best of Gorgon, at the same time Madusa and the other royal family members find Black Bolt but are confronted by Havok who threatens to take out the inhuman leader, Havok warns Medusa and company about Emma Frost who he states is the real fight, Back in New Jersey Iso and the other young inhumans decide to help Forge build and use his machine in order to stop the Mist, Grid warns ISO that helping Forge goes against everything Medusa and the royal family have been fighting for.

Sypnapse and Reader teleport to The World and find Karnak meditating after surviving his battle with Jean and Fantomex, together the three of them try to wake up lockjaw. Cyclops, Ms. Marvel, Grid and the others fly to Iceland, but are quickly confronted by the full X-Men team, Back in X-Heaven Colossus finds Havok siting and is surprise when Havok tells him he let Royal family leave with Black Bolt.

The action picks up at end of the issue when the inhumans and Cyclops have it out with Emma and the rest of the X-Men, as they two teams fight Magneto becomes impatient with the senseless fighting and decides to step in.

Conclusion: Now that the younger Inhumans are going to help Forge stop the Mist, I’m interest on how this will affect the Royal family in the future, Medusa feels as if the X-Men have crossed the line attacking New Attilan and taking Black Bolt, when this conflict finally ends you can bet a rift between the inhumans and Mutants will be bigger than before. While still entertaining it still feels less important of an issue , compared to the AvX or House of M events.

Are the X-Men in the wrong? If you think about it, they have a legit cause, a threatening mist is poisoning all mutants on the planet yet it still feels as if the X-Men are in the wrong. You may ask the question as to why it seems that way, and the answers simple just look at the last pass crossovers, the X-Men haven’t been a shining example of heroes in the past so when they do have an actually cause to fight it still feels like they’re in the wrong.

The Royal Family finally find a way out of limbo, Iso and Inferno gather the new inhumans and devise a plan to infiltrate Muir Island using Mosaic’s unique ability, he tries to take control of Magneto but because of Magneto’s experience with mind control the possession doesn’t last long and he is spotted causing him to steal a aircraft for a quick escape. Meanwhile the royal gets free and with help of Johnny Storm set a fire around the mansion in order to keep them from attacking them, but Medusa and the rest of the royal family are confronted by Colossus.

When Mosaic returns to New Jersey he tells them the Royal family is in Limbo, and he also tells them about the Terrigen clouds are more dangerous then what they initially thought, this revelation has the younger inhuman’s questioning whether who is right and who is wrong

Conclusion: When you have two groups believing what they’re doing is the right thing your almost certain conflict will happen, and this crossover brings that issue to the forefront once again. This is an issue that’s similar to what’s going on in today’s society more than ever, you have two teams fighting because they believe each other’s race is in danger and that there’s no other way. But because Ms. Marvel, Inferno, Iso and company are on the outside looking in they see it differently and that’s putting doubts in what they should do next.

After escaping Wolverine (X-23), ISO and inferno find themselves face to face with the original Wolverine (Logan) and fight between them breaks out, surprisingly inferno holds his own against Logan even going as far as knocking him out. With logan out for the count the two capture Forge and blow up his machine, back in limbo the Royal family are coming up with a plan for escape. The young inhumans inferno and ISO come up with a way to get help against the X-Men, they decide to get in touch with Kamala Khan Aka Ms. Marvel who they know can get other inhumans to help them.
The meat of the issue is when Young Beast, but before that we see Jean Grey and Karnak are in what looks like an illusionary world, Kanrnak sees through the illusion and escapes but is quickly confronted by Fantomex. I said before the meat of this issue is when young and older beast chat with the X-Men, with forge gone the X-Men can’t get rid of the Terrigen Mist, the McCoy’s are trying to come up with another way but Emma and the rest of the X-Men believe the time for action is a must because once the royal family gets free things will become even harder, with Emma hint that if Black Bolt is freed all hell will break loose.

The reavel of Black Bolts capture and hinted release is sure to make things a bit more interesting in the future, with the mist still lurking around the teams’ main focus is getting Forge back as soon as possible, but with ISO and Inferno gathering inhumans to help recapture New Attilan, the X-Men could have major issues going forward.

The majority of the action takes place in New Attilan, With Black Bolt,Crystal and Karnak all out of commission the X-men are able to attack Medusa and the other inhumans with ease. The plan was simple attack and take out the royal family without harming the innocent civilians during the process, for most part they accomplished that goal thanks to Magik, she uses limbo as a prison for the inhumans.

Throughout most of the issue we see the perspective of the situation form each of the X-Men, whether it be through actions or dialog we get a good idea of how each member of team is feeling. While Storm is all for taking out the inhumans, she’s not about killing them unjust, Meanwhile Magnetio and his band are willing to do whatever it takes. Johnny Storm tires his best to deflate the situation by asking Medusa to not fight back, but she explains to him the X-Men are way past keeping the peace and that as queen she must defend her home and people.

Storm and the X-Men finally takedown the last few royal family members and put them in limbo, at the same time ISO and Inferno look for Eldrac the Door in order to escape a determine Wolverine (X-23), the issue ends with inferno and ISO begin teleported to Alberta where Forge and Old man look stand waiting.

Conclusion: Without Black Bolt the Inhumans have no chance against the X-Men, as a team the X-Men are a force to be reckoned with and this issue displays that, you can argue that even with Black Bolt they still would have lost. When the X-Men are written to having a just cause, they are enjoyable to read, unlike the Avengers vs X-Men crossover I find this crossover more bit more enjoyable at the moment, I’m looking forward to seeing how this conflict plays out.

With the Butcher being the first person on his list to be taken out, Logan now sets his sights on Hulk. Early in the issue we get a flashback of the future. In this flash back we are shown the terror Hulk’s children and grandchildren has caused, granted Banner doesn’t make an appearance but we do see his off spring and just like the Hulk they are also out of control when they kill Logan’s wife and kids at random. The but meat of the issue is in the present , after tracking Hulk down, Logan attacks with everything he’s got but soon realizes that the Hulk isn’t the mindless brute he’s known to be.

Logan finds out that The Hulk isn’t Banner its Amadeus Cho, he’s the new Hulk, confuse once again Logan asked Cho the location of Banner but before he can get answer the police interrupt and Logan leaves, still confused Logan seeks out Hawkeye for help and again he’s thrown a curveball when he finds Kate Bishop instead of Clint Barton as Hawkeye.

It seems like the past has change instead of the future in Old Man Logan #2, alot of things aren’t exactly what he remembers them to be, like Amadeus Cho as Hulk and Kate Bishop being the new Hawkeye, I’m curious to see what has happened to the Banner and Barton, along with how the changes will effect the future when or if Logan makes it back. The issue is extremely fast pace just like arc, this could be a problem later on but i’ll hold off on that until next issue.

Jeff Lemire’s Old man Logan tells the tale of when super villains banning together and taking out most of the heroes, and with no X-Men and The Avengers to protect the world, things have become a bit darker.

[spoiler show=”Story Spoilers” hide=”Story Spoilers”]The story starts off with Wolverine waking up in an alley in Times Square, Logan runs into Spider-Man but does’t have clue who he is showing symptoms of amnesia, he then bumps into two cops who question him, this causes Logan to snap and he breaks an officer’s arm’s, the other cop tases him witch so happens jolts his memory back, logan realizes that he’s travel back in time, He comes to the conclusion that maybe he’s here to change the future and so he begins to look for the people responsible.

We jump to a flashback of Logan and his son Scotty riding through the wasteland to a villain name the Butcher market for parts, the market is actually located at an S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier crash site. Logan and Scotty are confronted by Butcher and some of his men, they try to bait him into a fight by slapping his son in the face but Logan doesn’t retaliate he and Logan just leave. Scott asks him why didn’t he do anything and Logan tells him the world is not as hero friendly as in the past, and that one has to pick the right time to fight back.

Back in the present time Logan starts his mission to stop the villains from taking over, he writes a list of names of his arm, and one the names is Butcher, Logan finds him in bar and attacks him but Butcher so how knew Logan was coming and gets the jump on him first, But the sadness and anger drives Logan to overtake Butcher and strikes him down cutting his arm off in the process, after savagely taking down Butcher, Logan now understands that was sent here to change things and we finally see the names on his arm, Butcher who he crosses out, Bruce Banner, Mysterio and Red Skull are the next targets on his list, with Banner being next.—————————[/spoiler]

What i find interesting about Old Man Logan is world it’s self, there seems to be factions of sort all over the world, reminds me of Borderlands but with Marvel characters. The premise of the story doesn’t really intrigue me as of right now but i get a feel it will later on, but for right now I want to know more about the world and the heroes that live in it. The artwork is more of a sketchy type of style with alot of heavy shading, not my cup of tea i’m more fan of the style Sara Pichelli brings, now i’m not saying its bad just not for me, with that said its not hard depicting whats going on in each panel.

As a first issue it does its job laying the foundation of whats to come in the future and i’m waiting to see if Lemire gives us more charceter and world building in the future.

Marvel isn’t the only one launching crossovers in the market, today Scott Snyder and Jeff Lemire sit down to talk about the upcoming Swamp Thing and Animal Man crossover. It’s a tough showdown but Pamela Mullin from DC is able to pull a lengthy interview with both of them. Check it out below for all the goods.

What are the top 3 things you need to know about SWAMP THING or ANIMAL MAN?

SS: Swamp Thing: he’s big, he’s green and he’s badass. Really though, what you need to know is that Dr. Alec Holland was born with a strange connection to the Green – the earth’s network of plant life. As for many people before him, this connection was a sign that he was destined to become the fabled protector of the Green, a powerful creature known as Swamp Thing. But with Alec, the connection was stronger than most, so strong the Green believed Alec might be destined to become the greatest Swamp Thing ever, a warrior-king Swamp Thing. Alec resisted this destiny for a long time, but now he has accepted it out of love for a woman named Abilgail Arcane, to save her from a death force called the Rot, and so Alec has been transformed into the Swamp Thing – a swamp thing more powerful than any that came before. Just like Buddy is Animal Man, the avatar of the Red, the network of all living creatures, Alec is Swamp Thing, the avatar of the Green. Both of them have an enemy in the Rot.

JL: Animal Man is a father and husband first and a “superhero” second. Any decisions he makes are with his family in mind. And in many ways the book is as much about the entire family as it is about Buddy Baker. His 4-year old daugther Maxine is the next Avatar of The Red, the lifeweb that connects all living things. Buddy is her protector, and stands in
her place until she is ready. Buddy can connect to any animal and take on their traits. In upcoming issues we’ll see these powers grow and evolve into something more.

What’s been your biggest challenge working on SWAMP THING or ANIMAL MAN with the knowledge that it will have ramifications in another title (s)?

SS: Honestly, the biggest challenge is simply keeping up with Jeff – his imaginative storytelling and amazing character work on A-Man have me in awe every month.

JL: I agree. Scott’s biggest challenge is keeping up with me. But seriously,
both Animal Man and Swampy have such a revered history that the
challenge is living up to what’s come before, while at the same time
doing something new and making the characters our own.

How often do you talk story?

SS: We talk all the time. Every couple days. We’re like high school girls, but we talk about rot-monsters with baby-heads and such.

JL: If you ask my wife, we talk way too much. But Scott’s my best friend and
we have so much fun talking about comics and coming up with these
stories it’s hard not to.

What’s been your favorite moment of each other’s book so far and what are you most excited for in the other’s book this summer?

SS: There are so many. I think the one I’ll name here though was the moment the Hunters came through into our world through the zoo animals. I knew it was coming from having spoken to Jeff, but it still terrified me.

JL: I love the scene where Abby and Alec lay down in the grass and her side
wilts and his grows all lush. A really brilliant poetic moment that said so much with so little.

I’m most excited for all the other DC universe characters that will be poppingup in the crossover…fans are in for more than a few surprises. The scopeof the story is much bigger than just Animal Man and Swamp Thing